


To Make the Heart Grow Fonder

by CinnaAtHeart



Series: TumblrWeeds [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Break Up, F/M, Ficlet, Prompt Fill, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 16:57:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10035248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CinnaAtHeart/pseuds/CinnaAtHeart
Summary: “I think we should spend some time apart.”Steve drops his box of chocolates and stares at Darcy, startled. “What?”





	

“I think we should spend some time apart.”

Steve drops his box of chocolates and stares at Darcy, startled. “ _What?_ ”

“I think we should spend some time apart,” Darcy says calmly. Steve sits down heavily in his chair. “I’ve thought about this a lot, and I think it’s be best course of action.”

He swallows, a wave of ugly emotions rising like bile into his throat. “Why?”

She sighs. One of her fingers traces the edge of her butterknife, but he doesn’t think she even realises what she’s doing. “We’ve stagnated, Steve.”

“Are you… breaking up with me?”

Her eyes widen. “What- no!” She shakes her head emphatically, but Steve is not convinced.

“But you’re saying we should- what, go our separate ways? Doesn’t that sound like breaking up to you? Because it sounds that way to me.”

Darcy grimaces. “Okay, so maybe I didn’t say it as well as I should have, but I couldn’t think of a better way to put it. But I think we should- I don’t know, be apart for a while. See the world- just, not with each other.”

His eyes feel hot as all the insecurities of his young-adulthood suddenly rise to the surface. “Do you not love me anymore?”

Darcy shakes her head again. “Steve, I _adore_ you. You’re the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

“Then- _why?_ ”

“Because what we have seems to have stagnated,” she confesses. “You must have noticed; we don’t go out anymore. We hardly talk- if it’s not you that’s busy then it’s me. It just- it feels like ‘we’,” she gestures between the two of them, “aren’t the priority anymore. And I _hate_ it!”

Steve stays silent; he can see the sense in her words, he guesses. They do seem to barely see each other anymore, for all that they live together now. Darcy carries on. “I love you Steve- I love you so, _so_ much. I want to fall in love with you all over again and I’m hoping- well, I’m hoping you want to do the same with me.”

“I do,” he promises. Darcy smiles.

“Then maybe it’s like they say, right? Absence makes the heart grow fonder?”

He’s quiet for a long time and Darcy doesn’t push him. It seems like a huge risk, he thinks. What if either of them meets someone else in the meantime? What if they came back and they were too different to work anymore? The thought of breaking up with Darcy- God, it makes him ill. “Can I think about it?”

Darcy stands and rests her hands on his shoulders and Steve leans his head against her chest, breathing in the soft smell of laundry powder and soap. “All the time you need, love,” she murmurs. “Whatever you choose, I’ll still love you.”

He nods against her chest, and hopes against hope that she’s right.


End file.
